DEFENSE COMMUNITIES 360

Congress Still Aiming to Clear Nine-Bill Spending Package This Month

House and Senate appropriators are continuing to hash out differences in the nine remaining fiscal 2012 spending bills, aiming to finish work on a massive omnibus before the existing continuing resolution runs out Dec. 16.

Bipartisan negotiations on most of the bills are done, with lawmakers still negotiating only the most contentious issues, reported CQ Today. The military construction and defense spending measures would be included in the omnibus. Last month, the president signed a “minibus” including spending bills for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science and Transportation-HUD.

The White House, meanwhile, warned last week that the federal government could shut down if Republicans insist on trimming FY 2012 spending below the levels agreed to in August’s deal to raise the debt ceiling.

“If congressional Republicans want to avoid a veto and are serious about avoiding a costly government shutdown and preventing the uncertainty that a shutdown would bring to our markets and our economy, they will stop attempting to re-litigate the August agreement and abandon ideological stunts,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote in a blog post.